Baby Einstein founder speaks

Billion-dollar company started at home.

Billion-dollar company started at home.

November 01, 2006|JULEE R. LAURENT Tribune Correspondent

A packed house of eager mothers and amateur entrepreneurs gathered at the Benton Harbor High School cafeteria to hear "mompreneur," Julie Aigner-Clark, creator and founder of the Baby Einstein Co., talk of how she started her business and what's next now that the company has been sold to Disney. "I never anticipated any of this happening. Every day I am as surprised as everyone that this happened. The Baby Einstein Company is now valued at over $1 billion. That is the b -- as in billion. It is still very surprising. I couldn't have imagined that when I was filming these videos on a tabletop in our basement," Aigner-Clark says. Aigner-Clark, a Michigan native and Michigan State graduate, then showed some clips from her now famous Baby Einstein movies and explained the reasoning and concepts behind the videos. "When I found out that I was pregnant, I decided that I really wanted to be at home with my daughter. After she was born, I wanted to expose her to all the things that I loved, like music and poetry. But there wasn't anything out there that featured those things for babies," Aigner-Clark explains. "So when I started this, I was just making videos for my daughter. I would record them as I thought a board book would look to a baby. I recorded things that she liked, like a long shot on a plate of peas on a black table cloth. Then we started incorporating puppets, and Aspen loved them." The first video she and her husband and business partner, Bill Clark, produced cost about $15,000, an amount that she wasn't sure they would ever recoup. However, the demand from friends and neighbors quickly helped and made the Clarks think that they had something worthwhile on their hands. "I eventually went to a trade show in New York called the Toy Fair. I couldn't afford a booth, so I just showed up with a copy of my video and started reading name tags until I found some people from a company called 'The Right Start'. I knew that they would be the perfect company. Finally I found some women from there and I jumped in front of them, thrust my video in their hands and begged them to watch it. I think I scared them a little," laughs Aigner-Clark. "I memorized the name tag of one of the women. Her name was Wendy, and I went home and waited for my phone to ring." She waited for over two months. Finally, she called the company and asked for Wendy, but Wendy had quit two weeks before. "I laughed and said to the receptionist, 'Oh, that's right. She told me she was leaving. She told me to ask for, ummm,' at that point I pretended to try to remember a name and the girl said 'Oh you must mean Cathy.' I said, 'Yes, Cathy, That's right. Can you tell Cathy that Julie Aigner-Clark, the president of The Baby Einstein Company is calling? I knew I was embellishing, but sometimes you have to lie, and sometimes that's O.K." Cathy, at The Right Start, loved the videos and test marketed them for her nephew. She ordered a hundred copies and they quickly sold out. Afterward she and Bill released "Baby Mozart" which helped bring total company sales to $1 million. Within five years, they were bringing in $20 million per year. A few years ago, after dealing with competitors trying to cash in on their original idea, she sold the company to Disney for an undisclosed multimillion-dollar sum. Aigner-Clark happened to be in Benton Harbor to serve as a celebrity judge for Whirlpool's Mother of Invention Grant competition; a contest that awards innovative mothers by helping them start their own small business. "I was amazed at all of the things I saw at this contest. There are so many mothers inventing ground-breaking things," Aigner-Clark told the crowd at the Benton Harbor High School Auditorium. She also thought it would be a good idea to talk to some local moms and encourage them in their endeavors. "I never thought I would be in this position. Now I can help others mothers realize their dreams and ambitions. Now that my girls are getting older, I have other issues to address and that is why I have started another series of videos called "The Safe Side," Aigner-Clark says. She told the crowd about the new video series "The Safe Side," which she co-produced with "America's Most Wanted" host John Walsh. The video series teaches children about the dangers of strangers, kidnappings and the Internet. A portion of the proceeds for the videos go to The National Center For Missing & Exploited Children, which was founded by Walsh. Aigner-Clark closed her presentation by saying "Just because you're a stay-at-home mom, that doesn't mean you don't do anything. Being a mother is work. Fortunately the ideas that mothers get while staying at home can help other people. I hope that being here tonight and telling my story encourages everyone here to pursue their dreams." For more information about "The Safe Side" go to www.thesafeside.com.